The “cianfotta” or “ciambotta” is essentially a rich and delicious dish based on vegetables (although there are versions that include meat and fish) subjected to rather long cooking, flavored with various kinds of herbs and spices, such as basil, chili pepper, and so on. It is therefore a vegetable stew that can be served hot or cold, both as a side dish and as a main course. This recipe is my way of making vegetable cianfotta, the “festive” version, which I prepare as a side dish for Sunday lunch or on special occasions during the summer period. Cianfotta, in fact, is a summer recipe, which should be made with eggplants, zucchini, and peppers when they are in season.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients
- 12 oz potatoes
- 1.1 lbs eggplants
- 1.1 lbs peppers
- 1 onion
- 1.1 lbs zucchini
- 1 carrot
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste fine salt
- to taste basil
- 1 chili pepper (optional)
- 1 tbsp dry white wine (optional)
- 1 cup water
Steps
Wash all the vegetables and remove the inedible scraps.
Add the vegetables, one type at a time, at intervals of five minutes from each other.
1- In a very large pan, heat the oil with the finely chopped carrot and onion (fresh spring onion, white, golden, or red) on a small burner over low heat.
2- Peel the potatoes (old and new, red with yellow flesh or golden with yellow flesh are fine) and cut them into very small cubes so that by the end of cooking they are almost mushy.
3- Separately, cut the peppers into strips and then into not too small squares; cut the eggplants and zucchini into large cubes.
4- When the onion is stewed (about 10 minutes), first add the potato cubes, raise the heat and let them brown for five minutes, stirring often.
5- After five minutes, lower the heat again, add the eggplants and mix them with the potatoes, remembering to stir often.
6-Then add the zucchini and mix them with the other ingredients; finally, after another five minutes, add the peppers, wine, chili pepper, fine salt, and the cup of water, stir, raise the heat and cover. Continue cooking for about 60 minutes.
7- Stirring occasionally, check the cooking; the cianfotta is ready when the potatoes are almost mushy and all the vegetables are very soft.
If you want a drier cianfotta, uncover the pan for the last ten minutes of cooking and let any excess liquid evaporate.
8- At the end of cooking, you can dress it with torn basil leaves and enjoy it hot; or let it cool and enjoy it the next day.
The pan should be large enough to perfectly contain all the vegetables and allow us to stir them without problems; at the end of cooking, however, the initial volume of the vegetables will have reduced by half or almost. In cianfotta, I prefer to use striped purple eggplants because they reduce less than the dark purple ones. Cianfotta can be stored in the fridge for about two days, in a well-closed container.
The pan should be large enough to perfectly contain all the vegetables and allow us to stir them without problems; at the end of cooking, however, the initial volume of the vegetables will have reduced by half or almost. In cianfotta, I prefer to use striped purple eggplants because they reduce less than the dark purple ones. Cianfotta can be stored in the fridge for about two days, in a well-closed container.
